Lakers News: Trevor Ariza and Jason Terry say Kobe Bryant was better than Tim Duncan

San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan retired a little over a week ago, and given the nature of the offseason, his hanging up his Curry 2 Lows sneakers has led to endless talk over where he ranks among the game’s all-time greats. There have been endless debates, tweets, and columns arguing one way or the other ever since the press release announcing his retirement dropped.

One of the most obnoxious arguments among these has been whether or not Duncan’s“selfless” and non-spotlight driven style were better or worse than the way other superstars, such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, conducted themselves.

Whether Duncan taking less money on his contract improves his legacy in someone’s eyes probably says a lot more about them than his choice to repeatedly take lower value contracts does about himself, but it certainly didn’t affect how good of a player he was. Duncan easily ranks as one of the best players of all-time, and certainly his generation, but where exactly he is on that list is totally subjective, and hard to argue empirically one way or the other.

That being said, Trevor Ariza and Jason Terry both say Kobe Bryant was better:

Well there you have it. Debate’s over, I guess. Whoever is the last one to leave, don’t forget to turn off the internet on your way out the door.

In all seriousness, while it’s certainly interesting to hear the opinion of a few of Duncan and Bryant’s peers, this is hardly a more definitive answer than we’ve gotten from the last week of offseason arguments. More interesting than adding fuel to that fire was the smaller story Ariza revealed about Kobe’s last game:

Of course he did. Never change, Kobe.

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